{Lilly Diabetes Blogger Summit 2012} Disney Book Collaboration

This week I headed to Indianapolis to the Lilly Diabetes headquarters with about a dozen other bloggers for the Second Annual Blogger Summit.

I love these events because it gives me a chance to see some of my online friends in person. And it always feels like I’m reuniting with old friends.

While the day focused on exchange between us and a selection of employees including the president of the Diabetes Division Enrique Conterno, I think as parents of kids with diabetes you will be interested in the continuing collaboration between Lilly and Disney. I will definitely circle back and give you some thoughts on the event as a whole, but I wanted to share this aspect first.

These are the current Lilly Diabetes and Disney books for children. There is an additional ESPN title not shown.

We have not had a chance to read these books yet, but I will definitely let you know our thoughts as we read each one over the summer. The two ESPN books are geared towards newly diagnosed tweens. The Hannah Montana book is based on the episode of the same name, which aired a couple of years ago.

Flipping through the cookbook, many of the recipes look interesting and ones that my kids would actually eat. Each of the recipes features a different Disney character (not all are princesses!) and a tip. The recipes include portion sizes and carb counts. I’m appreciative that while some of the recipes have sugar, none use artificial sweeteners. We were served the brownies and cobbler for dessert and both were really good. The brownies were a bit small, but at 11 carbs each, who am I to complain?

I think it’s a testament to both Lilly Diabetes and Disney that they are continuing to develop these books and add content to the Family.com site. I think we’ll see more from this collaboration…hopefully there are more Coco books and the addition of teen books down the line. I’d like to see the characters in the books move past the newly diagnosed stage and begin dealing with issues that T1 kids face in school, sports, and their every day lives. Too bad Coco can only say “Eek!” and can’t share her true feelings about her diabetes, though.

(Coco was an existing Disney character.)

Like the previous title Coco and Goofy’s Goofy Day, these titles will be available from pediatric endocrinologists. Ask your endo for copies and if they don’t have them, tell them to request them from their Lilly sales rep. They are available for patients in the US only.

We bloggers stressed the need to Lilly staff to find ways to distribute these books more easily to families so that they get into the hands of the T1 children, friends, and caregivers who can benefit from them. I personally think they need to be in school and public libraries. They took note, so I hope that you will be able to get your hands on them a little more easily.

Disclosure: Lilly Diabetes paid for my travel expenses and lodging. They also provided me with copies of these titles so that our family can read them. No monetary compensation was received. Opinions are always my own.

WE just got that cookbook…I’m totally happy when recipes don’t use artificial sweeteners, because we completely avoid those..it’s fun to have a cookbook aimed at little diabetics…however, I still thought some of the carb counts on some were higher than I’d like (the bready ones, of course)…I find that d-life typically does a nice job at coming up with good recipes that are lighter in overall carb.

We received all three of the Coco books that are out now at our first diabetes training day. My toddler, and his older brothers (ages 8 and 7) found extreme comfort in them. They asked their dad to read them each night before bed for quite awhile. Thank you Lily and Disney for making the onset of T1D a bit less scary for my family!!